Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7 is part of a segment in 29:1-15, 21-23, 16-20, 24-32, 51:59-64b that concerns Jeremiah and the exiles in Babylon, offered in 594. Exile is the context for this passage. After the collapse of the kingdom of David and Solomon into the rival northern and southern kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the chosen people became subject to centuries of political domination by surrounding powers, Assyria and Babylon chief among them. The northern kingdom of Israel fell to Assyrian control in 722 B.C., and the fortunes of the southern kingdom of Judah became increasingly precarious, especially vis-à-vis Babylon.
Two themes run through the writings attributed to Jeremiah: judgment and hope. Given the turbulent times in which the prophet lived and worked, the presence of the latter theme is hardly surprising. Indeed, chapters 30-33 of his book are commonly and appropriately designated "The Book of Consolation," since most the prophet's hopeful sayings are collected there.[1] What is less expected in the writings of a prophet who lived through the destruction of the holy commonwealth is the theme of judgment. Much of the first portion of the book, chapters 1-24, devotes itself to interpreting the catastrophe of Judah's political annihilation as evidence of God's judgment against an unfaithful people. Jeremiah's preaching was a reaction to the false predictions of a premature end to the exile that characterized much of the discourse of Israel's leaders, and it is in that context that we need to understand this text.
Behind every word of Jeremiah is a somber fact - God's people have been cruelly uprooted, plucked up, transported to Babylon in 594 BC. Babylon left the prophet Jeremiah behind.
Jeremiah sent a letter to the exiles. These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah (an identification that occurs over 30 times in the book, beginning at 20:2). The repeated (but not consistent) identification of Jeremiah as a prophet is clearly redundant (and is not always included in the Septuagint; see, e.g., 20:2), and reflects nothing more significant than the long and complex editorial history of the canonical book. There is no question that many of Jeremiah's oracles and sayings circulated in oral form long before they were compiled into a single book (by Baruch, Jeremiah's amanuensis, and by others as well), and the identification may be little more than a formulaic honorific. It is unlikely that the tag "the prophet" was meant to distinguish the author of the oracles from the several other persons named Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible (see, e.g., II Kings 23:31, 24:18; I Chronicles 5:24, 12:4, 10, 13; Nehemiah 12:1, 12, 34, 10:2, etc.). He sent the letter from Jerusalem to the remaining elders (or “the elders” in LXX and RSV) among the exiles. The phrase suggests the Babylonians imprisoned and deported several the ruling elders of the exiles to locations outside the Jewish community in Babylon, or executed them, perhaps during the period of disturbance. He also sent the letter to the priests, the prophets, and all the people. The phrase is a comprehensive expression found also in II Kings 23:2 and Jeremiah 13:13 (with "inhabitants of Jerusalem" in place of "the people"). The expression may reflect the Deuteronomistic layer of redaction in the book of Jeremiah, since its use in II Kings clearly reflects Deuteronomistic theology. Whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. … When the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II, who ruled from 605 to 562 B.C., quelled a rebellion in Jerusalem in March of 597, he deported primarily the elite and selected elements of Judahite society: the 18-year-old king, Jehoiachin, the queen mother, court officials, military leaders, and skilled artisans and craftspeople II Kings 24:14-16). The biblical account of the siege and initial deportation indicates a devastating loss to the kingdom of Judah. Among those left behind in the capital city - described collectively as "the poorest people of the land" (II Kings 24:14) - was the prophet Jeremiah, whose career had begun some 30 years earlier, in the "thirteenth year of King Josiah" (i.e., 627 B.C.; cf. Jeremiah 1:2). Jeremiah never joined the exiles in Babylon, although he was carried by force to Egypt after the assassination of Gedaliah, the Babylonian-appointed governor of Judah (Jeremiah 40-44), and it was as an exile in Egypt that the aged prophet presumably died not many years after the fall of Jerusalem in 587 B.C.
Jeremiah sends a letter to the homesick Jewish exiles in Babylon. Jeremiah has heard that some prophets in exile have told the people that God will bring them home quickly. The word God has given Jeremiah is quite different. That is why Jeremiah writes a letter to these exiles, telling them what makes for a good hometown. They will need to take their interim situation seriously. 4 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel (35 occurrences, with only I Chronicles 17:24; Isaiah 21:10; Zephaniah 2:9 not in Jeremiah, this pleonastic designation of God second only to the more concise "the LORD of hosts" in frequency of occurrence in the book (41 times), to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, signifying that they are to reimagine their journey as the people of the Lord to the point where their identification as a people is not a location and will survive beyond the destruction of a city, a temple, and the Davidic line: 5 Build houses and live in them, so they are to check out the housing market; plant gardens and eat what they produce, checking out the job market. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. They are to start a family. It was clear to Jeremiah that the end of Israel's captivity would be long in coming, and the modus vivendi of the captives in the meantime should be directed toward the preservation of a remnant rather than their destruction, which the attempt to overthrow the Babylonian overlords would surely bring. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf. This advice must have been theologically galling in praying for the captor and destroyer of Judah. The close connection between people, land, and the national god that characterized the religious landscape of the ancient Near East in general was an essential feature of the religion of ancient Israel as well, and the crisis of the exile lay in precisely the severance of that vital connection between Yahweh's people and Yahweh's land and temple. To pray for the destroyer of that vital connection was tantamount to renouncing much of Israel's ancestral religion. Jeremiah's letter to the exiles was radical in its call for Israel to face the historical reality of its existence with unwavering courage and unblinking candor. For in its welfare you will find your welfare (frank self-interest). Such self-interest is thin justification for the theologically challenging advice of Jeremiah. The unwelcome advice of verses 5-6 becomes the politically and religiously subversive advice in verse 7. Even if the appeal is to self-interest, the command to pray for the heathen is unparalleled and remarkable. Jeremiah encourages the exiles that they can still find God without temple or cult. Not only were the Israelite captives to make the best of their bonds of captivity, but they were to stay put, establish homes in Babylon, and even assist in the welfare of the state. God's people should not resist, resent, or reject their current location. They should not pack up and move, nor should they dig foxholes and fight. Instead, they should settle in a foreign land, live productive lives in exile, and even pray for the welfare of their new hometown. Creating life amid the ruin can be a great act of protest that arises out of hope for the future. The advice Jeremiah gives the exiles in Babylon is unwelcome but realistic: build houses, settle down, plant gardens, and harvest their produce, marry, and beget offspring, and engender another generation. For many Christian readers of this text, a natural connection with the New Testament affirmation that we as followers of Christ are never completely at home, which raises the question of how then should we live in this world? This question is behind Jeremiah's advice to people who live in exile. Jeremiah wrote and dispatched the letter. The letter appears from Jerusalem in response to a period of Judahite rebellion among the exiles in Babylon. Some prophets told the exiles they would soon return home. Its advice was both unexpected and unwelcome: settle down and behave. Jeremiah addresses the letters, which comprise Chapter 29, in the first instance (vv. 1-15, 21-23) to the exile in general. The first letter is Jeremiah’s unwelcome advice to the exiles: Settle down and make your peace with Babylon, for release is not coming soon. In the second instance (vv. 24-32) his letter deals with the problem of a false prophet named Shemaiah. They are to beware of scammers.
As the letter of Jeremiah indicates, prophecy in ancient Israel, although it may have arisen as a charismatic ad hoc component of religious and social life, eventually developed into a recognized, professional institution, and prophets were retained at royal courts throughout the ancient Near East, including Israel. Court prophets had as one of their principal functions divination (foretelling the future). They served as royal advisers in matters of warfare and the welfare of the people in general. It should hardly be surprising that, as prophets came increasingly under the patronage of the court, their prophecies would begin to orient themselves in directions amenable to the programs and expectations of the prophets’ royal patrons. Conflict among prophets was inevitable, with some prophets (the majority represented in the Bible) attempting to retain their independence as deliverers of authentic divine revelation irrespective of royal expectations or desires. The Hebrew Bible preserves numerous examples of the conflict between true and false prophets, including this passage.
Among the classical prophets, Jeremiah is unique in employing the epistolary form for his prophetic pronouncements. Prophets did occasionally write the message they had received from the Lord. Yet, the written form was far less common than oral delivery of prophetic speech, which prophets often accompanied with symbolic or illustrative acts or gestures. For example, Jeremiah wore a wooden yoke to represent Babylon’s oppression of Israel, in chapter 28; but note in 28:10-11 that the false prophet Hananiah also engaged in both symbolic speech and actions, which were, in themselves, no guarantee of prophetic authenticity. Jeremiah did intend the letter to the exiles to represent or accompany symbolic speech. He offers prudential advice. A conflict in prophetic messages was the background for Jeremiah’s letter. Some attempted, through false optimism, to assuage the fears and anger of the Israelite exiles by predicting an early end to their captivity. Others, like Jeremiah, foresaw a protracted period of exile stretching before the Israelites; and who, for that reason, counseled accommodation by the Israelites to their circumstances. It was partly because of such grimly realistic assessments of historical circumstances that Jeremiah acquired his reputation among his contemporaries for gloominess.
Well, Jeremiah offers simple wisdom for those in exile: stick around, put down roots, and get involved. There is no way around it. There is no escaping this connection. In a sense, Christians need to be the best citizens our community has. It has pleased God to connect the well-being of the believing community with that of the world. Since the world supports the community, the community should also be ready to serve the world.[2]
American Christians have a calling to live in this culture, in this time and in this place. Christians will rarely distinguish themselves in obvious ways from their neighbors. They will raise families, build homes, plant gardens, operate businesses, and become involved in the community. We care about our community and our country. We recognize that if the country makes advances and progresses economically, politically, morally, we also receive benefits. Yet, being a Christian in any culture is tricky. Little compromises can become major matters of faith. The church could take the path of some and become revolutionaries or reactionaries. Yet, both approaches have an unreasonable character to them. Jeremiah is right. We need to seek the best for the land in which we live. We need to engage and involve ourselves in the city and nation, loving it enough to seek its improvement.
Since the 1960s, the North American church has lost its home court advantage. One could trace the history back to the 1700s, but the forces of secularity have gradually replaced the formative influence of the church.[3]
Let me apply this text to our culture. Seek the welfare of towns where neighbors down the street may be Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist or Muslim. Seek the welfare of workplaces where colleagues may be agnostics or New Age seekers, folks who think of themselves as spiritual but certainly not religious. Seek the welfare of communities where activists may be trying to separate everything church from everything state. In short, we are to seek the well-being of a diverse, confusing, and often conflicted culture. Engage it, says Jeremiah, do not escape it. For in its welfare you will find your welfare.
It is tricky. When we go to church, we were a minority of those within our neighborhoods. Being Christian is no longer the normal thing to do. Well, says Jeremiah, make the best of it. We recognize that our citizenship is in heaven. We realize that something is at stake in the way we spend our money, and the way we spend our time, and what we do with our families, and the clothes we wear, and on and on. I think churches could do a better job of equipping their people to make these important decisions.
However, you also do what Jeremiah says. You plant a garden, you pray for the peace of this city, even though not everyone in the city worships the God whom you worship. You realize that this is the world to which God has called you and you try to live in this world, this world with all its ambiguity, and its many challenges, as best you can. We recommit ourselves to working for the physical, moral, and spiritual welfare of the world around us. It means that we see our hometown as a mission field: The very place God calls us to settle, grow in faith, and reach out in love. One might call this a "bloom-where-you're-planted" approach. The homeland becomes a mission field.
Christians are in an awkward position as alien citizen. Such a notion poses the irresolvable problem for both the notion of “God and country” and “God and country.” Christians affirm their responsibility for the politics of the earthly city, knowing their true city is the City of God. They have a form of loyalty to the earthly city that other members of the earthly city cannot help but view as subversive. The example of Thomas More comes to mind. On the scaffold, he declared that he died as the good servant of the king, but as the servant of God first. Had Henry had the necessary insight, he would have known that Thomas was a better servant of the king precisely because he served God first. He demanded a form of total allegiance that no alien citizen could render him.[4]
A firm aspect of Christian tradition is that one cannot distinguish Christians from the rest of humanity by country, language, or custom. They do not establish their own cities or possess a unique language. They do not have an eccentric manner of life. The origin of what they believe is not ingenuity or deep thought of inquisitive human beings. They do not present their beliefs as simply human teaching. They live in cultures around the globe. They follow the customs of the country in which they live regarding clothing, food, and other matters of daily living. Yet, the find ways of showing others in their lives the remarkable and extraordinary constitution of the heavenly city to which they belong. They live in the earthly city, but as aliens. They share the life of a citizen and endue life as an alien. Every foreign land is like home, but every homeland is foreign. They marry and have children like others do but welcome their children as gifts of God. They are faithful to their spouses and families. They live with all the concerns of the body, but do not allow the desires of the flesh to dominate their thought and life. They busy themselves with improving life on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven.[5]
Exiled Jews experienced geographical displacement. They experienced a loss of the structured, reliable world that gave them meaning and coherence. Their conquerors mocked, trivialized, and dismissed the most treasured symbols of faith. While exile can be geographical, what gives it power is its social, moral, and cultural displacement. The sense of loss of a structured, reliable world that includes the mocking and dismissal of treasured symbols of meaning is a pertinent point of contact between this ancient text and our situation today. Reflective Christians are increasingly resident aliens. The marginalization of Christian faith and life in western societies is a matter to which reflective Christians need to give serious attention.[6] I say this, regardless of whether your politics lean progressive or conservative.
In February of 2007, I went to a School for Pastors in Deland, Florida. One of the speakers was Bishop Willimon. In his lecture, in conversation with me afterward, and in his writings, he has had an emphasis upon the church as “resident aliens.” He says the church should view itself as a colony. "A colony is a beachhead," he argues, "an island of one culture in the middle of another, a place where the values of home are reiterated and passed on to the young, a place where the distinctive language and lifestyle of the resident aliens are lovingly nurtured and reinforced."
I can identify with what the bishop says at this point. One of the great challenges of churches today is to find ways to nurture distinctive Christian language and lifestyle in the middle of an increasingly secular society. The Christian community needs to do a better job at helping each other to live as Christians in this culture. We need to help each other look honestly at our lifestyles. Have we compromised our faith we live? Are we doing that which we ought to do regarding the nurturance of the faith of our children? These are among the questions exiles might ask themselves.
Yet, I think the passage before us challenges us with another perspective on people who live in exile. Even if we are not completely at home here, this time and this place is our home for now. In addition to being citizens of heaven, we are citizens of this time and place. God has placed us here. We need to become so involved that we seek the improvement and betterment of this place.
Thus, if our community needs to improve parks, homes, its environment for business, and schools, then Christians need to help it happen. We can view it as our civic duty, I suppose. Yet, for us as Christians, God has called us to connect with this world in love and concern for it. We help make Christ known in such ways.
Let us each ask God to give us the grace we need to be faithful disciples in our own time and place. We are strangers in a strange land here. Yet, this is the only time, the only place we have for the moment, and by God's grace, we ought to make the best of it. Christians are those whom God has called to live in the here and in the now as God's people, as salt, leaven, light in the present world.
[1] (see John Bright, Jeremiah [Anchor Bible 21; Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1965], 284).
[2]
[3] George Hunter, Church for the Unchurched (Nashville: Abingdon, 1996, p. 20).
[4] Richard Neuhaus, First Things, May 1996, p. 74.
[5] "Letter to Diognetus," second century,
[6] Walter Brueggemann, Cadences of Home, Preaching Among Exiles, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997, pp. 1-2.
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